6 Year Missing Persons Case Turns Into Joint Homicide Investigation

Remains of Ryan Guitron of Fort Collins, Colo. Are Uncovered

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — James A. Alderden, Sheriff of Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, Fort Collins, Colo.; Danny L. Glick, Sheriff of Laramie County Sheriff’s Office, Cheyenne, Wyo.; Colonel Bryan Tuma of the Nebraska State Patrol; James A. “Tony” Rose, U.S. Marshal for the District of Wyoming; and Special Agent in Charge Marvin G. Richardson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Denver Field Division announced today that skeletal remains of Ryan Guitron of Fort Collins, Colo., missing since Nov. 4, 2003, were uncovered in southwest Kimball County, Neb.

On April 8, 2010, a team of investigators served a state of Nebraska search warrant at an abandoned farmstead in southwest Kimball County, Neb. The search warrant was the result of information gathered in a joint effort by the Nebraska State Patrol Troop E Headquarters- Scottsbluff, Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, Fort Collins, Colo., the Laramie County Sheriff’s Department, Cheyenne, Wyo., the U.S. Marshals Service, and ATF Cheyenne Field Office. The joint investigation revealed information in the potential homicide of Ryan Guitron of Fort Collins. Guitron was 30-years old when he was reported missing to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 4, 2003.

New information in the more than six-year-old missing person’s case was uncovered the first week of April 2010, when officers from the Cheyenne Police Department and deputies from the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office responded to a domestic disturbance that occurred in Cheyenne, Wyo. A male identified as Vencil Leo Ash III, 38, of Cheyenne, Wyo., was taken into custody as a result of the incident. During a joint investigation into this incident, Laramie County Deputies, Cheyenne Police Department Officers, and ATF Agents recovered .45 caliber ammunition and a .270 caliber rifle from Ash’s residence. Ash was later charged with being a prior convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

During the course of the investigation, information was developed that Ash and Guitron had previously been roommates and that on or about September 2003, Ash allegedly took Guitron to an abandoned farmstead in southwest Kimball County, shot him, and buried his body in a woodpile at the farm.

A search through a woodpile on the farmstead led to the discovery of human remains. The remains were taken to Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff, Neb. for forensic examination and identification.

On April 14, 2010, through the use of dental records, the remains were identified to be those of Ryan Guitron.

Ash is currently in the custody of the U. S. Marshal Service being held on a federal complaint filed on April 6 relating to his federal firearms violations. This is an ongoing homicide investigation and the case against Ash is currently under review at both the federal and state levels for prosecution.

Any identified individuals that have been arrested and or charged with a criminal violation, and the circumstances surrounding their arrests are allegations, and those persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

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Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives United States Department of Justice